Roger Ramsey is your helpful attendant in this nostalgic trip back through gas station history.

No, the operator of American Gas Pump Heaven Museum is not going to saunter out to the parking lot to fill up your gas tank, check your oil and inflate your tires — although you get the idea from the intensity of his interest in old-time service stations that he would do just that if you asked him.

What he will do without urging if you visit the museum at N. Tuscarawas Avenue at W. Front Street in Dover is guide your tour through displays exhibiting decades of gasoline and motor vehicle history.

“We have 60 vintage gas pumps around or inside the museum dating from 1907 to 1959,” said Ramsey. “I have all of them marked with the manufacturer, model number and the year they were put into service.”

Ramsey says “around” the museum because many exhibits — gas pumps galore and other artifacts not affected by inclement weather — surround the main exhibit building.

“Also on the museum grounds we have a replica of a Sohio gas station,” said Ramsey. “Two gas pumps are in front of it and when you go inside you see the same things you would have seen in a gas station in the past. Cash register. Oil cans. I replicated men’s and women’s rest rooms on the side. I’ve seen people pull up and try to use the air pump.”

Ramsey, who opened American Gas Pump Heaven Museum about three years ago, said the museum was born out of his interest in old automobiles and his hobby of collecting items that are auto-related.

“It started because I always liked old cars and I wanted one gas pump at home that would go with the old cars,” recalled Ramsey, who is retired. “I got one and restored it. I guess then it got out of hand.”

Artifacts inside the museum represent 25 to 30 years of collecting for Ramsey, not only gas pumps, but also gasoline advertising plaques — Gulf, Texaco, Sinclair — and other signs that might be seen along highways of the past.

“We have a lot of vintage signs — Mail Pouch, Burma Shave, Rexall drugs, Borden’s milk, ” said Ramsey, who noted that a commemorative fence recognizes four Dover businesses — a dairy, a movie theater, a hardware and a clothing store.

The checkered floor that can be found in part of the museum fosters nostalgia and appeals to community pride.

“It’s black and gray with a red border,” he explained. “Dover’s school colors are red and gray and New Philadelphia’s are red and black.”

Artifacts that have little to do with gas stations also are found in the museum.

“The fancy word for the pumps is petroliana, but we also have a lot of Americana and automobilia,” he said. “For example, I have a Statue of Liberty inside.”

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Ramsey listed other throwback items on display. A model train, a Victorian ticket booth, and a 1920s nickelodeon are among them.

“I play it (the nickelodeon) for people. It lights up and has several different instruments.”

The museum is a time machine of sorts, a glimpse back at what we were, at least while we were on the road.

American Gas Pump Heaven Museum is nonprofit. Ramsey charges $5 admission ($4 per member of a group), but the money goes only to “pay the light bill,” he said. While the museum is open weekdays only by appointment, Ramsey is eager to make those arrangements with those who call either 330-204-2490 or 330-343-6883.

Gas pumps are his passion, you see. And he possesses an avid interest in the past in general — especially the time when gasoline was 20 cents a gallon.

“I’d like to preserve the past for the future,” he explained. “I just enjoy sharing it with people. Young people learn something, and for the older people it’s nostalgic.”